


A Guarded Kind of Love

by Amledo



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Pining, Threesome, Threesome - M/M/M, bookshop au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-01-18 22:22:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1444981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amledo/pseuds/Amledo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lu has been one of the managers at Barnes and Noble for a while now, and he's developed quite the crush on his co-worker, the barista Cory.  He just doesn't know how to tell him, or more accurately, if telling him will ruin their longstanding friendship. It might just take their new cashier Eddie to change everything.</p>
<p>This is the Cory/Eddie/Lu fic that people have been looking for. My first time out so I don't know how I've done. The chapters will be short and I don't know what the update schedule will look like, but I hope you like it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Roberto sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, pressing his fingers just below his eyes in an attempt to ease the tension that he felt growing behind them. As he tilted his head to crack his neck the glasses that had been settled atop his head slipped back down and smacked into the bridge of his nose.

“Shit,” he breathed and pushed them into place over his eyes with a little too much force. He picked up his stack of stock manifests and flicked them against his leg so that they were rigid in his grasp and easier to read, if such a thing were possible. Everything was a mess.

The boxes around him were yet unopened but at least finally sorted in order of the manifests, dated by arrival. Unfortunately that was the problem, he had already been at it for three hours and hadn’t even begun to verify that the actual products they’d ordered were in the boxes. At the rate that he’d been forced to go he was going to be there well past the end of his shift and still leave more than half of his work unfinished. The only relief that he had was that the boxes were all finally accounted for and that he didn’t have to accuse one of his subordinates of theft, merely incompetence.

Who put the smallest box of an order in the back corner of a shelf, honestly? He was half tempted to figure out who’d taken the order and write them up for the blunder. Though they were probably one of the poor bastards out with the flu and it wouldn’t do to punish them further. He took comfort in the thought that whoever had caused him to waste half an hour combing the stockroom high and low was likely suffering at that very moment. It was a bad day, and he was surrounded by incompetent assholes.

“You’re still working on that?” Cory’s voice was quiet, as it always was after a day of shouting people’s orders across the crowed coffee shop portion of their building.

“Practically just getting started to be honest. And you’re not supposed to be back here,” Roberto responded, his eyes narrowing behind the reading glasses that he swore he only needed for those manifests. But Cory just smiled, his whole face lighting up as he perched himself on an empty section of shelving, a clear violation of safety code.

“Too bad, I’m on break and I got bored. Thought I would see how you were doing, you’re only my best friend in this place,” the red head retorted, looking around the stockroom as if he hadn’t been back there a thousand times before. Roberto sighed quietly against those words, best friend would be the death of him, he just knew it. Really it was a wonder that Cory hadn’t caught on to the annoyingly huge crush that Roberto had on him, but he supposed he was thankful. After all, he didn’t want to lose his best friend if the feelings weren’t mutual.

“What about Kevin? I thought you and him were friends?” he asked as he carefully sliced open the box that correlated to the first manifest. He couldn’t allow himself to get distracted by Cory’s presence, as much as he wished that his position as manager meant that he could. Alas, someone had to get off their ass and do some work.

“Kevin…yeah he’s a bit up Alex’s ass at the moment and I’ve never known how to handle happy couples. Besides, you’ve been stuck back here by yourself the whole shift. Don’t you want a bit of company?” Cory’s voice was tinged with obvious distress at their co-workers newfound relationship. Roberto thought for a moment that he’d caught a break but he wouldn’t force the other man to endure an uncomfortable situation and so decided to suffer himself. With a smile on his lips he lifted his head just long enough to give Cory a nod and began lifting books from the box.


	2. Chapter 2

He was silent for a long time, his hands ghosting over spines of books as he counted the rubber banded bundles, lips moving though he said nothing. The first part of checking in an order was the hardest, he had to set his mind to a rhythm of codes and counting, making sure never to confuse the two. Thankfully Cory understood and simply alternated between watching and thumbing through his Facebook or Twitter on his phone. How the man had a provider that actually worked in the storeroom was a mystery, but it was actually nice to know that someone was there with him. Being alone had grated on his nerves more than he’d realized.

“How’s work been today,” he asked at last, finishing with the first layer of books in the over-large box. They were part of a new series that they’d be displaying in the coming week and if the manifest was right the next box would contain a cardboard upright display that he could hopefully get one of the floor assistants to assemble. He was way too behind to figure out which tabs were meant to go where and pray that nothing came unfolded. Besides that he’d had his fill of cardboard cuts when he was an associate.

“Hectic. Winter finals are coming up. The college crowd is cramming themselves full of caffeine and pretzels at an alarming rate. I swear this one girl is going to launch herself into orbit if she orders one more double espresso, but she looks so damn desperate that I can’t cut her off,” Cory said, stretching his legs and sliding his phone into the cargo pocket of his khakis. He scrubbed his hand through his hair and stifled a yawn that Roberto had to look away to avoid catching himself.

“I wouldn’t tell her ‘no’ then. I remember when I thought High School finals were stressful. Just make sure she eats something. Slip her a muffin on the house, you know how this works,” Lu said, tugging the dividing slip of paper out of the box and frowning at the irregular stacks of books beneath it. One of the rubber bands had snapped and slick covers had slid sideways everywhere. It would only give him a bit of trouble, but he hated to have any more delays.

With a flourish he pulled a new rubber band from his pocket and began to pile the offending books into it, missing Cory getting to his feet. He was absorbed in counting and re-counting the volumes to ensure that they’d received the proper number when he felt the other man’s hand drop onto his shoulder. It didn’t startle him, not completely; Cory touched him often enough that he was used to it, though he wasn’t sure what he’d done to earn the gesture. Aside from that it took a good deal of effort not to reach up and take that hand in his own.

“Thanks Lu, I mean, for the advice and letting me hide out here. I owe you pizza and beers after work, alright?” he said, giving Roberto’s shoulder a shake as he smiled brightly. The older man grinned and nudged him back. It had taken some getting used to when they’d first met, but by now he understood that Cory cared about his customers. Whether he tried to or not the barista had some sort of insight into the emotions of the people he was serving and often their feelings dictated what kind of day he had. Though the thing about not being able to stand happy couples was news to him, Cory saw dozens of those every day and they never seemed to get to him before.

“You know you can bug me whenever you want. But hey, you want to spend your money on me, I’m not going to stop you,” Roberto said, deflecting his own feelings and pushing them back down where they belonged. There was no way he was going to complicate the friendship that they had with his stupid emotions. Thankfully Cory simply laughed and gave him another shove before sticking his hands in his pockets and sauntering back out toward the main floor.


	3. Chapter 3

It took him another two hours to finish the boxes that had piled up over the week. No one had been doing the simple job because there was no one to do it. With everyone, well several of them anyway, out sick, he was doing more than his fair share of the work. At least this one was done, the books were binned in and he could do the fairly easy portion of placing them on the shelves in the morning when he came in to start yet another twelve hour shift. This one was at an end and he was beyond done with it and ready to take Cory up on the beer and pizza offer.

That was the benefit of being neighbors in an apartment complex he supposed; if he got too drunk it wouldn’t be an issue for him to still make it back home. And there was no way that he would ever stay around Cory when he was intoxicated. It wasn’t conducive to keeping his secret a secret.

He shook his head and straightened his body, cracking all of his joints he groaned softly. Maybe he was getting old; sitting in one spot for a protracted amount of time had never bothered him before. The thought was one that he had frequently, especially when he was surrounded by kids either freshly out of college or still in college on such a regular basis. He kicked the empty boxes toward one of the back exits, wondering if he’d guessed right as to where they’d dropped the Dumpster that week and shoved the bin toward the sales floor door.

The large grey bin made a hollow thunking noise as it struck the cinderblock wall and rolled back toward him slightly. He liked to believe that he was his glare that stilled it once again.

“You shouldn’t throw things,” Cory’s voice didn’t startle him, not at all. He looked toward the younger man, standing some distance away in another part of the storeroom.

“How long have you been watching?” Lu grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to meet his friend’s cheeky grin with a smile of his own just yet.

“Enough for you to have your old man freak out again. Come on, get your coat and hat, we’re picking up the pizza on the way home,” Cory replied with unashamed honesty. Lu slid his hand over his face and smiled at last. If nothing else he could count on the fact that Cory would never lie to him and that was something of a comfort, even if he wasn’t sure why.

He grumbled quietly about nosy co-workers for the duration of his walk across the expansive storeroom. He didn’t use the employee lounge to store his things when he was sentenced to this job, the walk to retrieve them would be a waste of time at the end of the day, he had learned. Tugging a spare bin from under a rack full of miscellaneous shelving pieces he plucked his coat out. The material was getting a little well-worn but it was wool and sturdy so he didn’t care so much if the color faded, grey was just as good as black. Besides, it went with the grey knit cap that he wore to keep the wind out of his ears.

“I need to clock out. Are you already off the clock or no?” he asked once he’d buttoned his coat and adjusted the collar, doing his best to ignore the dramatic eye-rolls and foot tapping of his friend.

“I’m done. I thought managers could clock in with their cell phones?” Cory said curiously, his hand grabbing for the door first, knocking Lu’s out of the way. The older man gave his most ridiculous pout and followed Cory out into the much brighter sales floor.

“Nope, that’s a myth we tell all you kids to get you jealous,” Roberto replied and dodged Cory’s swipe. The other man wasn’t actually trying to land a blow or he wouldn’t have been able to get out of the way. So thankfully he wasn’t really offended.

At the front desk Roberto grabbed the nearest unused register and punched in his code to access the menu. With a few more keystrokes and a click he was officially finished for the day. Cory dragged him toward the doors at the front of the store without even letting him power the thing down. Apparently the pizza was very close to ready.


	4. Chapter 4

Riding in the passenger seat of Cory’s car with the pizzas stacked in his lap and a case of beer nestled between his feet was one of the things that he’d gotten used to over the course of their friendship. Cory dealt with his feelings in strange ways, be they aggressively practicing a new drink for work or eating everything in sight, Lu had come to understand when something was up. He just didn’t know how to preface his concerns. There was the sneaking suspicion that the situation with Kevin and Alex had gotten under his skin more than he was letting on, but he didn’t really know if he could bring that up without giving his own feelings away.

So he kept silent. He would wait it out.

Cory’s driving showed no signs of agitation and they made it to their apartment complex without incident. Which was good, because neither of them really had the money to pay for a speeding ticket or any other sort of traffic violation. Hell, Lu didn’t even know if it was legal for him to have the beer up front with him but he wasn’t about to alter his routine.

They crunched their way through the gravel parking lot and up the stairs to Cory’s apartment. The pizzas warming Lu’s hands, the beer clasped firmly in Cory’s. It wasn’t strange to be silent for so long, but it certainly felt like leaving work had deflated anything that remained of Cory’s good mood. Perhaps it had only been there because he had been forced to keep up the appearance for his customers.

“Fuck, I should be happy for them, shouldn’t I?” Cory swore and slapped his keys against the counter. Roberto blinked in confusion at the outburst and stared into bright blue eyes looking for an answer.

“Cory…what?” he asked after a moment, setting the pizza boxes down and frowning at his friend. It was beyond obvious that Cory’s distress had finally spilled past the barriers that he’d put up. But this was something that he hadn’t expected in the least.

“I’m not. I’m not happy for Kevin and Alex…and I should be. They’re good together. They are fucking perfect for each other. So why am I just…I’m upset and that bothers me. God, Lu they’re my friends and I hate them for being happy,” Cory said in a rush of breath. His fingers dug against the counter top and his knuckles turned white as he stood there.

“It’s okay. It’s alright. Really. You…I think you’re jealous,” Lu scratched his head awkwardly and puffed out a breath while Cory’s features wilted into something less angry and more miserable. “You’re single and they’re falling in love right in front of you. I mean, that’s just what I think,” he finished and watched the other man nod, accepting of the opinion.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I mean, how lucky are they? They just get to have a co-worker that they can fall in love with, no effort in going out to places to find someone. I don’t have time to do that, or the money. Shit, you’re right, I’m just being a jealous piece of shit and the stress of keeping up with all these college kids isn’t helping,” Cory said, almost to himself as he moved around the kitchen. He pulled down plates and napkins because he was weird and insisted that they not eat their pizza directly from the box. Two beers landed on the counter and the rest of the case was stuffed in the fridge. The frustration worked itself out with each move and step until he stood with his shoulders sagging and his head bowed against a low cabinet.

“Hey, you’re only human. Everyone gets jealous,” Lu said and nudged the other man, dishing up their pizza to help lighten the mood. The smell of pizza was therapeutic, he believed it wholeheartedly.

“Right,” Cory replied and grinned, the expression seeming genuine as he scooped up his plate and his beer. He headed for the couch and kicked off his shoes as he went. Neither of them ever wore their shoes on the carpeting. Lu toed off his shoes and followed his friend, still feeling concerned about how he was feeling, but a little more relieved that they’d at least covered the topic of concern.


End file.
